City of Milwaukee Will Again Fight We Energies on Rate Increase
Council says latest proposal harms residents, city.
Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic in April 2024. Photo by Sophie Bolich.
The City of Milwaukee is gearing up to challenge We Energies‘ proposed electric rate increase, which would add more than $23 per month to the average residential bill once fully implemented.
It is the latest of several challenges the city has filed with the Public Service Commission.
“If you are a bit tired of hearing me speak on this, imagine how tired I feel and how tired the residents of the city of Milwaukee feel,” said Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, the lead sponsor.
She said the city and ratepayers scored a win when the PSC amended We Energies’ data center rate structure to require the companies to cover 100% of the cost of new infrastructure, but that We Energies continues to seek more rate hikes.
“As soon as the ink could dry on that proposal, We Energies, a monopolistic corporation, went forward and asked for another rate increase,” she said.
The latest proposal, introduced before the data center case was finalized, calls for a 10.28% increase for the typical residential customer in January 2027 and 5.52% in January 2028. Commercial customers would see a smaller percentage increase.
“It means $14.67 per month, then followed up by $8.69 per month,” said Dimitrijevic, summarizing the impact on the average residential customer.
If approved, We Energies customers will have experienced six rate increases since 2020.
According to a Legislative Reference Bureau analysis, the average residential customer (660 kilowatt-hours per month) has seen their monthly bill climb from $72 in 2006 to $143 in 2026. The latest proposal would push the typical bill to $157 in 2027 and $166 in 2028.
“You can almost say there is a system that is making this happen. There is; it’s capitalism. We need to stop it,” said Ald. Alex Brower, who has long supported a publicly owned replacement for the utility. “When a business reaches this scale, it needs to be under public ownership.”
The council unanimously cosponsored the intervention.
“Our voices collectively represent half a million people,” said Dimitrijevic.
“When rates rise too quickly, residents are forced to make impossible choices,” perhaps skipping groceries or other purchases, said Ald. Peter Burgelis.
He said that the city needing to pay more would also punish residents. “The result will be fewer services for residents,” said Burgelis.
In April when the requests were filed, We Energies said the increase will help cover the cost of bringing clean energy and natural gas projects online, as well as fund tree trimming, burying power lines and replacing aging equipment.
“Our customers count on us every day for the energy they need, and we recognize our responsibility to continue providing safe and reliable energy, while keeping customer bills low. Our rate filing reflects that,” said Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for We Energies, in a statement. “Our request includes more than $225 million in savings from federal tax credits and earnings sharing. Our filing also confirms that data centers will pay their full share — no costs to serve data centers are shifted to other customers,” said Conway. “We offer access to energy efficiency rebates and programs to help reduce energy use and costs. We offer budget billing so customers know exactly what their bill will be each month. And we can connect customers to comprehensive assistance programs that help provide monthly bill credits. We encourage any customer struggling with their bill to contact us right away so we can connect them with help.”
UPDATE: A date error regarding the historical price data has been corrected.
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Maybe it’s time…https://www.powertothepeoplemke.org/
I do wish sometimes that Brower would focus on the smallest, easily fixed problems and move up from there, but hes’ 100% right about this one. The people should own the utility.
This intervention doesn’t do anything besides tell the PSC to vote against it. They are basically powerless. State law allows utilities to pass on 100% of capital investments to ratepayers, and add on whatever percentage profit the PSC approves. As a result, building more stuff will always make them more profit, even if that more stuff isn’t needed or in the interests of the public. This law needs to change, and the alders can do nothing about that.
Also, why doesn’t Marina feel the same way about all of the tax increases she has voted for, supported, and proposed over the last few years? If you add up the property tax rate increases every year she supports, the sales tax she supports, the MPS referendum she supported, and the fee increases she supported, this amounts to more money out of city residents pockets than these electric increases. She will say well those were needed to keep the city running. We energies says the same about supporting citizens electric needs.